Model Magazine International 07 2006

Mig Productions have created a new type of burnt out hulk in miniature - not an AFV this time, but a generic postwar civilian car that can be used in street fighting dioramas from the 1950s right up to the current day. We first showed this last issue and now we have taken a closer look, we have discovered a couple of very clever features that will help the modeller to make their model look all the more realistic. The kit is cast entirely in butter coloured resin, with the body and chassis of the car as a single component. The wheels are depicted with tyres burnt off, and fit to the body via simple Stub-axles, holes for which must be drilled by the modeller. The roof is cast as a separate part to allow the interior to be detailed, and it's in here that we are presented with a great piece of originality. The seats are completely burnt-out of course, and to represent the springs. MP provide not only a roll of copper wire, but a clever little device with which to form them into the appropriate zig-zag pattern! It consists of a baseplate and a system of gear wheels through which the wire is fed, crimping it into the zigs, and no doubt, zags, in the process. Marvellous!

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FineScale Modeler 01 2002

Like most of the people I meet in the hobby (especially those of the same vintage), I returned to the game (after abandoning one of my favorite pastimes to the demands of life) at about the same time that FineScale Modeler came on the scene. Prompted by a Christmas gift car kit, I checked out a local hobby shop in Dallas seeking paint, glue, and such. Talk about hobby shock - this was a whole new world of scale modeling. There was now a plethora of product and support materials, everything from publications to highly detailed figure kits. The sophistication of the new offerings overwhelmed me and I was hooked. As a history teacher, what really drew me in deep was the accuracy and detail of the aftermarket offerings, coupled with the wonderful new tool kits. I was a VLS junkie, a FineScale Modeler subscriber, and a Tamiya/Hasegawa disciple. After moving to Lincoln, Nebraska, in the early 1990s, I started working part-time for the local hobby shop, which happened to be the original HobbyTown USA.

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Model Magazine International 127

I've always been fascinated by Israeli armour, especially modern vehicles from the 1990s onwards. The Merkava. Israel's homegrown main battle tank, is a particular favourite of mine and has undergone many revisions and improvements since it was developed throughout the 1970s. The latest version, the Merkava 4. with its large saucer-shaped turret and heavily bolted appearance has an almost science-fiction look about it. Israeli armour has never been particularly well served in 1:72 scale, so the announcement of a range of resin kits from Cromwell Models was exciting news. A number of kits have been released so far covering several Merkava and Magach (M-60) variants, with more' promised for the future. Cromwell Models has traditionally been associated with 1:35 and 1:76 scales, but these kits mark the start of a new line called Combat 72. Another interesting aspect of these kits is that they are composed of only a few parts and this enables rapid assembly.

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FineScale Modeler 12 2002

My first exposure to the B-52 Stratofortress was unforgettable - I felt it in my feet! Three long, low rumbles, barely audible - like distant thunder or an earthquake. ''Arc Light," a staff sergeant casually muttered as he sat across the table from me at the Tan Son Nhut base library in Vietnam in October 1972. I was "in-country" only a week, so he could see I needed more than a two-word explanation. "A cell of three B-52s dropping bombs maybe 30 miles from here.'' Incredible! Thirty miles away and 1 could sense the devastation. Boeings eight-engine heavy bomber, often dubbed "BUFF'' for "Big Ugly Fat Fellow" took the place of the equally amazing Convair B-36 Peacemaker as the Strategic Air Command's ''big stick" in the mid-1950s. The B-36 was never used in combat but stood nuclear alert during the Korean War. Unlike the B-36, the B-52 has seen action in all but the briefest U.S. military campaigns since the mid-1960s.

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